I've noticed a small, but extremely annoying, problem with this game: if I have any windows at all open in the background, they constantly flicker on top of the game when it's running. It's more obnoxious than anything else, but I'd still rather not have to deal with it. I'm using all recommended mods on Windows 8.1. Thanks for any tips.

This is not a game issue, but a Windows one. Close the applications you have windows open for -- you don't need them while playing games, and some behave badly and continually steal focus from the game. This is the flickering you are seeing.

Sounds like you are running the game in Windowed mode...I run it (and all my games, really) in full-screen mode, and I always leave at least one window open on my 8.1x64 desktop--and the games always run full-screen on top of any open Windows on my desktop. That is normal behavior for full-screen Windows games, IIRC. If you are trying to run full-screen but still have desktop windows opening in front of your game, please say so, because that's a different can of worms entirely...;)

Surely you've figured this out by now, but it's the first result in Google's search engine. So, with a cry of, "Rise, Lazarus!" , I suggest that one does not need to exit all other software, merely minimize them all.